Mill in South Tyrol, c. 1875

The vertical-format painting *Mill in South Tyrol * by Robert Russ (1847–1922) shows a watermill marked by time and weathering, with a mountain stream running by that flows downward toward the viewer’s lower vantage point. Created around 1875, the painting is characterized a stark play of light and shadow, effected by clear air and bright sunshine. The true-to-detail and drawing-like painting style speaks to the influence of the Düsseldorf School of Painting and remained a distinctive characteristic of the artist’s work. Russ, who came to have great success already at a young age and, at 23, was appointed interim successor to Albert Zimmermann (1809–1888), his teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, went on many trips Germany, Holland, Italy, and the Lower-Austrian Wachau region. From the 1870s, he kept returning to South Tyrol for the summer, creating numerous works there, some also based on this very motif, such as the drawing Mill at Mals.

AGW, 2021